What’s being done to prevent disappearances of Native American women?

The legacy of disproportionate violence and disappearances regarding Native American women continues to scar indigenous communities in the United States. Most cases of missing or murdered indigenous women receive little media attention and often suffer from a lack of law enforcement coordination between tribal and local police or a lack of legal authority for tribal courts to pursue justice.

More than four out of five Native American women are expected to experience violence within their lifetime. On some reservations, Native women are murdered far above the national average, but the numbers aren’t entirely clear because comprehensive statistics aren’t kept at a national level. Women’s advocates say more data collected over time would help give a clearer picture of an issue that has impacted Native communities for generations.

In this episode of The Stream, we ask: Why are Native women more likely to become victims of violent crime and what should be done to protect them?